Bay Area Billiken

And I'll add, if the Missing Two are reinstated, the venue won't matter next season in the SIU and Mo. State games. So SLU and Mo. State should get a deal done. Resume the negotiations after Jan. 3.

I truly hope both players are reinstated.

Do you think Mo. State would agree to the Footes' suggestion- play SLU next season in Springfield and then play the following 2 seasons at SLU? The problem with that from SLU's perspective is that would get SLU back into the same pattern of playing SIU and Mo. State on the road in the same season. SLU and SIU aren't playing this season, but assuming they play next season, it would be SIU's turn to host. So that situation wouldn't resolve until the third year of a 1-2, when Mo. State would play at SLU for a second straight year, but SLU would presumably play at SIU that year. Otherwise, we may be looking at a 2 year hiatus in the Mo. State series, if nothing else gives. I don't think that's good for either school, but especially not good for Mo. State. That next year in Springfield, the following 2 in St. Louis, may be the best that can be done. This, of course, is assuming Mo. State cannot play at SLU next season. If I'm SLU, I think SLU could accept that 1 away, then 2 home, and then alternate home and home thereafter. SLU is reportedly having difficulty getting good non-conference games at Chaifetz Arena.

Then renew the series, play next year's game at Chaifetz Arena, and stop inventing reasons not to play at SLU next season. It's really that simple. If you scheduled yourselves into 6 non-conference away games, then so be it. Stop the lame efforts at trying to put a spin on this one. Play the game.

I remember it well. The game started at 11 p.m. in STL, 9 p.m. out here on the Left Coast. I always liked watching hoops at Kiel Auditorium, which I thought was a much better home court for the Billikens than The Arena/Checkerdome, where the team played in my SLU undergraduate days. Those were the days.

The Pac-10 has a lot of new coaches who are early in their programs, with young players. Lorenzo Romar's Washington Huskies are the class of the league. UCLA, Arizona, and USC are all building. USC came close to winning at Kansas today, losing 70-68. San Diego State from the Mountain West is one of the best teams in the West. I saw them beat Cal 77-57 at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley, which is a very difficult venue for an opposing team. So far, the Mountain West may be better than the Pac-10 this season.

What don't you get? I'm just a loyal Billiken fan defending the honor of the Alma Mater. Maybe we need another clock/monitor situation. Did you guys get Gerry Pollard to ref tonight's game? Anyway, it's a good rivalry. You guys need to figure out a way to continue the series.

That would be ok, perhaps an acceptable enough solution. It would still smell, but not as bad as playing 2 straight down there and not getting anything out of it. If things go as hoped, SLU can probably beat them down there next year anyway. Good call, IMO.

The issue is not about 3 seasons ago. There was some issue there, but I don't recall it at this time. Perhaps others on this Board will be able to respond to that one. At some point, SLU wanted to stagger the SIU and SMS series so SLU didn't play both on the road in the same season. The issue is the current situation. Coach Majerus says there was a handshake deal. Why shouldn't he get ahead of the game and get to the media first? That was a good move, in my opinion. Evidently someone had a response. This stuff is what makes this game a good rivalry, a game that should be played, even if my personal opinion is that Mo. State has more to lose by not playing it. As for my experience, I have enough of it to remember when Southwest Missouri State was in the Division 2 MIAA and playing the then Northeast Missouri State (now Truman State), not too far from my neck of the woods.

In one sense, it might be better for SLU to not play Mo. State because it keeps Mo. State out of the St. Louis media and keeps Mo. State away from its recruiting, student, and alumni base in St. Louis. On the other hand, in upcoming years, I think SLU will have the better team, and Mo. State would be a win on the SLU schedule. Don't you think they're keenly aware of that down in Springfield? Irrespective, I will need to see compelling evidence to support SLU ever playing 2 years in a row, or 2 successive series games, in Springfield. That just does not pass the smell test. That is a not a solution. The next game in this series, after tonight's game, needs to be at SLU.

Are you choosing to ignore what Coach Majerus had to say on the subject? Apparently, you are. Coach Majerus says there was a handshake deal. Now we are seeing rebuttal spin coming from the other side. Evidently someone down there saw a need for it. And someone down there saw a need to create this situation. If SLU and Mo. State had agreed to play, then why schedule some other game? If for some reason Mo. State scheduled 1 too many away games, then why does the SLU-Mo. State series have to pay the price for that? I choose to believe our Coach. And as a SLU alumnus, from SLU's perspective, I see no reason to play this game 2 years in a row in Springfield. Mo. State will need to play this game more than SLU needs it.

I read that article and wondered the purpose for resurrecting this. Bay Area Billiken (BAB) was at Melvin "Big Chill" Robinson's last game for SLU, which was at the then Toso Pavilion at Santa Clara before a sparse crowd. We were sitting close and behind the SLU bench, as BAB tried in vain to will the team to victory. However, SLU, with all those freshmen, lost a close game. Anyway, Big Chill fouled out and walked off the court, taking his time to depart, and as fate would have it, walked away from SLU. But 2 seasons later, two of those freshmen were juniors, SLU started the season 14-0, drawing comment from then President Clinton, and SLU was NCAA Tournament bound. And the Billikens won the first round game over Minnesota.

This year the former Fourth District Normal School had Arkansas State, Central Arkansas, and Arkansas-Little Rock all on the schedule. The alleged scheduling conflict is pretty obvious- they know SLU will have a good, veteran team next year, and they don't want to get beat. They will need some time for their next JUCO infusion to take hold. It's an old scheduling trick, play the rival when you have the Seniors, create issues to defer future games when the rival will have the good returning team.

How about getting Loyola Chicago back on the schedule as the Chicago team? I'm too far removed, but have a radio announcer friend who attended Bradley, and could check into that one. I know he'd like to get the Bradley series resumed, as would I. It's a game that should be played. Bradley used to be St. Louis U's biggest rival.

Coach Grawer was derailed by the Craig Upchurch Fiasco. Coach Grawer took over at SLU after my Senior year. The program was at rock bottom when he was hired; we were very concerned that SLU was going to drop to D-2. In his 4th year, Grawer produced a winning season, the first at SLU since Bob Polk was the coach. Grawer had 1 team that went 25-10, and another that went 27-10. He had 3 NIT teams, and 2 teams that lost the NIT Championship game. I always thought several of those Grawer teams should have been in the NCAA Tournament, but SLU was in the MCC then, the MCC was a 1 bid league, and SLU could not get past Xavier. Grawer also recruited the two prime players (Erwin Claggett and Scott Highmark) that led SLU into the NCAA Tournament 2 years after Grawer's last year, under Coach Spoonhour. Rich Grawer saved the SLU Basketball Program. He is SLU's Moses- he led SLU to the brink of the Promised Land (the NCAA Tournament), but was unable to enter it himself. Another irony- in that year before Grawer was hired, we knew big changes were coming. As I recall, a U-News sportswriter advocated that SLU hire a Marquette assistant- named Rick Majerus.

Let's get a SLU win tonight and then replace the former SMS on the schedule. There should be no SLU concessions for them. It appears Mo. State created the alleged scheduling issues. If they want to play SLU again, the next game should be at SLU, period. This series will prove to mean more to them. They recruit the St. Louis Area, they have alumni and students from the St. Louis Area. Replace them with Bradley (an old rival, 69 previous meetings) or Creighton.

Coach Grawer is the saviour of the SLU Basketball program, which was very down when he became the SLU Coach. I'm glad he still follows the team.

Band Legend, I tried to clarify, even to modify to an extent, my position in subsequent posts. I realize that as of Oct., even Sept., nothing could be done- by then I agree that the game could not be canceled or deferred. My opinion remains that the issue re playing this game concerned the decisions made (or not made) before that, the right arm knowing or not knowing what the left arm was doing, etc. It's water over the dam now. I'm as guilty of looking back as anyone, and I'm probably as frustrated as any Billiken fan, but I think it is best to try to move forward, and get our players reinstated.

We're hoping to make the Jan. 1 game with Bowling Green, that would be 3 of us. That's a strange date and time for a game. It will be at the same time as the Rose Bowl.

Regrettably, there are similarities. Here's hoping SLU doesn't have locksmiths on call. Watching that Duke game, for the first time since my days at SLU (the 4 years of Ekker, first 3 years of Grawer), I felt helpless like when SLU played Louisville under Ekker, and like when SLU played the big non-conference opponents, Duke and Georgia Tech, under early Grawer. It really reminded me of those Louisville debacles, when Denny Crum would keep the full court press on the whole game (and we were pleading with him to put Marty Pulliam in the game). SLU keeps pulling the Barney Fife shoot yourself in the foot stuff. It's like history just keeps repeating itself, different fact patterns, but the same end results. I had such high hopes for this season, and have really been disappointed. I sincerely hope our players get reinstated.

Good point. I see your point re playing the game and think it is a valid one. However, given the totality of the circumstances, I'm not sure it was the best thing for the school and basketball program.

My observation was that the team struggled so much just to get the ball to half-court. Then they had to stop and get into something of an offense. Duke smothered SLU's offense nearly the whole court. Duke wouldn't allow SLU to get into a milk the shot clock offense, the old "Keepaway" offense in the word of Houston's former Coach Tom Penders. With that Duke defense, trying to milk the shot clock would have just led to more turnovers IMO. I don't think there was anything SLU could have done other than giving more minutes to Evans at the 3. Maybe something different could have been done on defense. It is hard to play a zone against a team that can shoot 3's like Duke, however. So basically, SLU showed up, made one good run early in the second half, causing Coach K to call a timeout, and that was just about it.

I think that's the point. The game should not have been scheduled at all under the circumstances. Once it was scheduled, there was probably nothing that could be done but to make the best of it. It sure sounds as if the right arm didn't know what the left arm was doing. Oh well, I guess we have to move forward. Let's hope the players get reinstated, and if anyone has any influence over that, please by all means use it.

Steve Lavin is a good recruiter- has the #3 class nationally coming to St. John's for next year. I was surprised to see Gene Keady on the St. John's bench. He is serving as a Special Assistant/Advisor, and Lavin seemed to be talking to Keady much of the game. This being said, St. John's blew two 20 point leads and really struggled against the soft 2-1-2 zone that Fordham was forced to play due to foul trouble to Chris Gaston and Brenton Butler, both of whom played much of the second half with 4 fouls. Fordham Coach Tom Pecora's strategy was to make the Johnnies win by shooting over the zone, and the zone seemed to slow them down. At the same time, there was no stall ball in Fordham. Both head coaches, Lavin and Pecora were dressed to the hilt in dark suits with dress shirts and ties, both with slicked back dark hair. The YES TV announcer said they were giving the Don Corleone look. I mentioned in another post what happened to LaSalle yesterday against Villanova. The A-10 was oh so close to 2 big upsets over Big East schools.

I think you are probably right. Point taken.